Billions of music, movies, TV shows, games, and software files are illegally downloaded through peer-to-peer (P2P) websites. Because of this illegal downloading, creators (such as artists, authors, and programmers) and content owners are losing potential income, which is resulting in, inter alia, record labels merging and downsizing, artists not having their contracts renewed, and creators and content owners not being compensated for this illegal use of copyrighted material.
Websites that allow illegal P2P downloading/uploading also have problems associated with poorly encoded downloads, low bandwith, junk software and create a high risk to users of downloading malicious files, such as a computer viruses, Trojan horses, spyware, pornography and/or spoof files. In addition, users of these websites, run the risk of civil or criminal legal action.